Saint Marys College of California

P.O. Box 4350, Moraga, CA 94575-4350

tel. 925.631.4700 fax 925.376.8379
www.stmarys-ca.edu/soe

LESSON PLAN #_9___

Learning Segment Focus or Big Idea: Final Project
Grade: 4

Content Area: Science

Time Allotted: 45 minutes

Classroom organization: whole class, groups of 3

Resources and materials: computers, chart paper, markers, paper

Content Standard(s): NGSS - ESS3.A: Natural Resources - Energy and fuels that humans use are derived from natural
sources, and their use affects the environment in multiple ways, Some resources are renewable over time, and others are
not.
Specific Academic Learning Objectives:
What do you want students to learn in this lesson? Students will learn: In the culmination of this unit plan, I will
give students the floor. I want them to teach each other what they have learned throughout this unit and decide
what kind of project they could do to educate the community about water and the drought.
What should students be able to do after the lesson? Students will be able to: After this lesson, students will start
to work on a project that will educate the school and community about the drought and how people can take
action.
Prerequisites:
What skills, knowledge and prior experience do students need for this lesson? Prior to the lesson, students will
have experienced an entire unit plan on the current drought in California. They will have had 8 lessons that have
made students aware about the water cycle, groundwater, freshwater, watersheds, and ultimately how water is
central to life.
How will you determine whether students have these? In the previous lesson, students will have reviewed
everything they have learned. Today, we will touch base about the main topics that were covered in the unit. I will
ask students what they thought was most important over these past weeks.
How will you connect to students' interests, backgrounds, strengths and needs, including their
cultural, ethnic, and socio-economic differences? I will connect with students interests by letting them use
technology and working in a small group.
Key ELD Standard(s):
Academic language demands:
What academic language is used in the lesson? (Vocabulary, language structure and conventions,
genres, symbols, etc.) The academic language in this lesson is all review.
What are the language demands of the task? Please address receptive (listening, reading) and productive
(speaking, writing) skills. Students will be expected to listen to directions and express what they
remember about the unit plan. They will have to work together to formulate a plan to educate the
community about the current drought in California and water. They will need to put their ideas down in a
Google Slides presentation.
Accommodations (to ensure all students have access to the curriculum):
How will you make the academic language accessible to all students? We will review the information from the
entire unit.
How will address the specific needs of your English learners? Students will work in small groups.
How will you address the specific needs of your students with special needs? Students will work in small groups.

Assessment:
What evidence of student learning will you collect? I will collect students final projects.
How will you use this evidence? I will use this evidence to determine what students have taken away from the
entire unit and what they thought was most important.
What criteria will you use to interpret the evidence? I will refer back to the standards and my unit plan.
How will the evidence affect your next steps in teaching? This will help me reflect on the unit plan in order to
understand what students took away from all of the lessons. This will help me understand what students deemed
to be most important and what I should have spent more time on.
Instructional Sequence:
Time
5 min

Set or introduction:
How will you begin the lesson? How will you engage and motivate learners, connect to prior experience,
activate prior knowledge and/or share learning outcomes?
1. To start this lesson, I will ask students to recall what we reviewed in the previous lesson. We will go over the
chart we created that cover the important parts.

10 min Developing Content/Body of Lesson: What instructional strategies and learning tasks will you use in the main
part of the lesson?
1. Next, I will pose a new question to class. I will ask students, How do people learn new things?
2. I want to see what students think are ways that people access information. People go to school, read the
newspaper, read books, watch tv, go to presentations, talk to their friends
3. After brainstorming all of the ways people seek out information to educate themselves, I will tell students
the objective for the day.
4. I want students to decide on a project to educate the community about the drought
5. I will pass out a graphic organizer so students know what to put in their presentations
6. Students will be placed into groups of 3
7. In those groups of 3 they will complete their graphic organizer and then start their Google Slides
presentation
25 min Checks for Understanding / On-going informal assessment:
How will you know what students are understanding? (questioning and observing throughout the lesson)
1. Throughout the lesson I will be checking in with groups
2. What do you want to teach the community?
3. What is important for people to know about the drought?
4. What is something that you did not know but now you want to teach to the community?
5. Why is it important to learn about the drought?
6. What can people do?
5 min

Closure:
How will learners summarize or reflect on what they learned (for example, share work, share a strategy, share a
process, discuss what they learned, raise a new question)?
1. At the end of the lesson, we will have a quick check in and students can share what kind of project their group
decided on to teach the community about the drought.
Extending the Lesson/Homework (optional):
1. Students will have 2 additional class periods to finish their presentations.
2. We will find a time to present after students finish.
Reflection, Next Steps:
1. Students will present in front of their 2nd grade buddies to explain what they have learned and how to educate
their direct community.